Thank you, Ray Pierskalla (Public Forum, Nov. 15), for taking a stand against the newly proposed natural gas franchise fee. As he stated, it's nothing but a new tax that the city can use to raise money by not calling it a tax.
Falls right in line with the same "tax" on my cable television bill. Have you noticed that on your bill?
Then let's not forget the biggest rip-off of them all -- so-called payments in lieu of taxes. With those hidden taxes added to franchise fee, taxes, one has to wonder how many others there are. Good grief, it must be approaching the $2 million mark -- a year!
We're already paying taxes through our utility bills, cable TV bills and hospital bills. The city apparently feels (with the payments in lieu of taxes policy) that it incurs extra expenses to provide city services, such as police and fire protection, simply because the hospital is in the city. Yet the council doesn't want to pay for the services it receives from the municipal utilities (such as street lighting and who knows what else?) And the payments in lieu of taxes from the city utilities are above and beyond that!
As I've said before, the Indian was right: "White man talks with forked tongue." Do you suppose the boys in St. Paul are considering making Willmar a capital for a day so they can take a lesson on how to raise really big money without calling the new funds taxes? When you look at it objectively, the state guys are a bunch of pikers compared to city officials in Willmar.
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I've always been told, "If it looks like a duck, and waddles like a duck, it must be a duck." But in Willmar if it's a "tax" it comes with different names -- so council can disguise it and then tell us what a wonderful job it's doing holding down taxes. By the way, Ray, I like your idea of looking into the salaries and benefits of city department heads too. But that subject is worthy of a separate study and letter to the editor.
John Tradup
Willmar
